Seasickness, a conflict between visual information and perceptions of balance
Motion sickness affects 39% of passengers and seasickness up to 66% of people on board. It is to answer this problem that the startup Boarding Ring launched in 2015 an individual device Boarding Glasses, a pair of glasses equipped with 4 rings containing a coloured liquid, to fight against motion sickness.
"Sea sickness is related to the difference in perception between peripheral vision and the inner ear. At sea, when we are confined and everything moves around us, we do not have the visual that confirms movement. The brain thus indicates the opposite to our body, which creates an imbalance. This is how synéthose (NDRL: motion sickness) is set up. To remedy this situation, what the inner ear perceives must be reduced to the peripheral visual field. We must transform the inertial information (movements...) of the inner ear" explains Hubert Jeannin, Managing Director of Boarding Ring.
Boarding Light, an intelligent lighting system to avoid motion sickness
Boarding Light is an on-board device composed of light columns. Their intelligent lighting reacts to the movements of the vehicle. It allows passengers to have a permanent artificial horizon, and prevents the appearance of motion sickness.
"They are columns of LED lights half lit on the upper part and half extinguished on the lower part and installed vertically. The on/off part will move according to the boat's movements. These are inertial censors that control a logic, which itself controls the on/off heights in the diodes. All on/offs in all columns are always flat, depending on the perceived inertia. Even when it heels, all the columns remain straight" hubert Jeannin explains.
The amount of lamps depends on the design of the boat, but it takes at least 4 columns of light for it to work. The columns are installed in favourable places (a plan of the boat is necessary to optimize the installation) with an inertial system to control the columns and a power supply.
"We'll reconstruct an inertial horizon plane inside the ship. A coherent visual support that will avoid seasickness. It'll stabilize the sensation compared to what the inner ear perceives." adds Hubert Jeannin.
This device can equip a workstation or a living room. The number of columns then varies according to the size of the room. It is a system that can also be installed outside, in the cockpit for example, for night shifts.
Increase comfort on board
Boarding Light should also increase comfort on board and reduce soil sickness (as is the case for Boarding Glasses). In test on the Energy Observer, the system proves effective in combating seasickness, but also makes you feel better on board, even for people who are not prone to seasickness, by recreating an atmosphere that is more conducive to sea sickness "like home." "There is a weapons officer on board who is not moored and therefore easily ill. Since Boarding Light was installed, it is no longer sick at all and no one is sick on board" explains Hubert Jeannin.
"Why are some sick at sea and others not? Why do some people get homesick? When you are not sick, you look for the frequencies that will maintain an inner balance. So it's an activity, a job that is done all the time not to be sick. We have an agility to manage this balance and more or less ease and therefore an underlying stress more or less important. There's this stress inherent in confined mobility, and boarding light allows you not to have it anymore." huber Jeannin explains.
The Boarding Light would thus make it possible to evacuate this stress and to sail in a more comfortable way. This would make us more operational for other activities.
The inside of Energy Observer - Jérémy Bidon
A small market
"It is a product that should be a huge success because the system is not bulky and the comfort on board is something fundamental. Our strength is to have the minimum visual clutter, the maximum number of valid and relevant support points. It fits everywhere and it's quite decorative, with an elegant design" explains Hubert Jeannin.
For the moment, however, Boarding Light is more aimed at the large yachting sector with a base price of 30 000 ? "It's a complex system, which requires working with cable people." justifies Hubert Jeannin.
Maybe if the startup managed to work with production boat builders, the price of the device would come down "In the future, we may be able to find a standardized system with large yards to equip pleasure boats, concludes Hubert Jeannin.
The specialist in motion sickness
Boarding Ring specializes in motion sickness and its lighting system is being tested in the automotive industry. Here is his field of activity
- boarding Glasses
- The Boarding Glasses lighting system
- Motion sickness in virtual reality
